Reading & Watching Reviews: Before or After You Read the Book?
Maybe I'm the odd one out, I don't know, but I rarely read or watch reviews before I've read the book. I might skim through a few, but I won't actually go and read them in general. Of course, this isn't always the case; there are some exceptions.
Why don't I read or watch reviews before reading? Good question. I don't want my thoughts to be swayed too much either for good or bad. I've read books before and finished them only to realize that I didn't have any concrete thoughts of my own about it. I had other peoples thoughts from having read/seen their reviews. And I don't like that. I also like to go into a book knowing very little about it, so reading reviews wouldn't make much sense in that case because even if they don't have spoilers, they still talk about the book and usually give a general idea about the book. That's why they're reviews.
So I usually steer clear of them until I've read the book. In some cases I'll read/watch if it's a book I'm on the fence about and I seem to have similar tastes to the person doing the review. That way it can influence me to either pick it up or not.
Do you like to read and watch reviews? If so, do you do it before or after you've read the book?
I do read reviews seeing as I write them also. But I only read them if I'm interested in the book r have read it, otherwise it just seems pointless.
ReplyDeleteOne World, Too Many Pages
I agree. I don't usually read reviews that I haven't either read the book or am interested. Occasionally a friend will write a review that catches my eye, but usually it's things I'm already interested in. Thanks for commenting!
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